Chains, stronger than iron, held her fast to the wall. Drusilla tilted her head back and stared at the dark symbols scrawled on the ceiling. The brassy-bright slayer's words drifted around the empty yet full chamber as idly as her threats. Until her pet slayer was found, no harm would come to her in the old dungeon.

"Vi will be found, Drusilla, one way or another." Buffy crossed her arms before she called out, "Come in Willow."

Drusilla smiled, as the gray presence rolled over her, and locked eyes with the slayer. Little do her guards know that once bad girls were kept down here until they learned to fight like diligent little soldiers. Drusilla can see so many girls behind Buffy and she can't help but smile and blow them a kiss. "Once I had a Will, a poet most effulgent, perhaps I may again." She arranged herself with her chained arms raised and hips forward. "You know, the blood in his veins still calls for me at the dawn."

Buffy turned on her booted heel and murmured to the red witch. "Get it out of her." She strutted out in a crimson aura as spirits clung to her.

The witch crept in like a skittish lamb. Her eyes widened as she looked over the vampiress.

"You kissed the girls and made them cry." Drusilla soaked in the magic that wafted off of this one. This is what she had been hoping for. Darkness and ambition held fast to the witch no matter how hard she tried to shake it. Corruption tainted her every spell. Like an over ripe strawberry, Willow was almost too sweet a nibble.

"I think we've gotten the measure of each other already." Willow held her hands behind her back. "You have Vi and we know it. You've blocked our trackers but you should understand that I can force the information from you."

"Oh, yes, dear girl, minds are your playground and much like a child, nothing is sacred." Drusilla smiled as she saw the soft eyes and gentle magics that haunted the witch. "She trusted you even after. Dried flowers crumble like faded memories." Drusilla laughed at the clumsy efforts of the witch's past and the subtle chaos of her future. "Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home."

Willow didn't flinch but the barbs hit home like the echoes of hot metal and the loss of final innocence. "Then you understand what I can do."

Doll eyes seeing the blinking buttons and overbright screens as watchers observed their slayers from even farther away, Edith whispered, quiet as church, into Drusilla's ear.

She cocked her head to listen as the walkie-talkie on Willow's hip crackled to life. Drusilla opened her mouth and she said in time with Buffy, "What's going on down there? Our computers are in crash-land and the psychics are turning green." Drusilla met Willow's gaze and mouthed along with her.

"Drusilla is being creepy and vague, but we're fine." Her aura flickered and flashed

"Curious girl, your scans and probes shall never tell you my secrets." Drusilla pushed her influence at Willow with a single image. Ancient and terrible, they performed the rites of Hecate as their dark energy mingled. "It isn't found on paper or in electricity. Its in the bones and the blood."

"Hey, the topic at hand is Vi. The hows and whys and more importantly, the where."

"It began on the hellmouth. There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers and you found the darkness that bubbled underneath a young girl's heart. It will end there much like she did. Much like they all did." Drusilla swept her eyes over all the slayers who never left even after their job was done. "Never asked them. Didn't even say please when you killed the girl within and replaced her with a slayer."

Willow sucked in a harsh breath before she picked up the walkie-talkie and asked Buffy, "Are the computers back up?"

"Negatory, good buddy."

Willow exhaled. "Thanks." She looked at Drusilla, mouth twisted in dismay, before she shook her head. "It had to be done. Buffy asked me too and it was the only way."

Drusilla smiled at the excuses and the lies that those children told each other to sleep at night. "Felt good to be so helpful and full of good intentions. Never enough though. Still so much evil and so few girls up to snuff." Focusing on the witch's barriers, Drusilla concentrated. "Never had a governess, but I grew to be a lady and I could show you all the ways in-between and to the crossroads."

"Yeah, like you're so magical." Willow crossed her arms, trying to mimic her slayer, and stiffened her stance. Her barriers grew thicker and darker in the gloom of the other sight. Tentacles of power reached out. All for naught in the end.

Drusilla broke through Willow's barriers to give her a good caress as she pushed the visual of them kissing on a pentagram while the moon rose over them and the earth shuddered below.

Willow staggered as her mouth opened in shock and she dropped her efforts "How?"

"Dust tells no tales." Her eyes became a trap. "Rumble, rumble, whistle, roar."

Looking away, Willow bit her lip as her thoughts spun faster than Drusilla could interpret. She wanted to be the hero but in her darkness lay a villain. Quite contrary much like Mary and never a garden shall grow. Drusilla smirked. "Did you ever see such a thing in your life?"

The walkie-talkie echoed in the still stone chamber. "Have you got anything out of her?"

Willow raised the handset slowly as she meet Drusilla's stare. Licking her bottom lip, she gulped before she replied. "No, I think I need more time."

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.